Montreal's police chief said the union is being 'irresponsible' in discussing how a riot was handled.
One week ago a protest in Montreal North turned ugly as demonstrators smashed store windows and set cars on fire.
Now the chief of police has strong words for the police officer's union.
Police have said they deliberately did not act because they felt the protest had been taken over by provocateurs who were trying to bait police into splitting up.
The Police Brotherhood sent a letter to Mayor Denis Coderre on Tuesday saying it is perplexed by the city's approach to public safety.
In the letter, Police Brotherhood president Yves Francoeur wrote "Police officers did not at all appreciate being ordered to stand down and having to tell business owners and citizens asking for help that they were ordered not to intervene."
In response, police chief Philippe Pichet said the union is out of line.
"I found it irresponsible for the union to say that kind of thing which affects the sense of security of the citizens and also the security of my police officers," said Pichet.
"My role is to ensure the security on the island and the role of the union is totally different."
Pichet said the police strategy of being less visible was not perfect, and said there will be recommendations made in the next few days regarding how police deal with violent protests.
Some local business owners said they believe police did the right thing, and that intervening may have caused far more damage.
"It would've been worse, guaranteed. I find the best doing it like that. Ten minutes, 20 minutes it passes. That's it, finished," said Mike Bakobanos of Restaurant Deli Hollywood.
The original demonstration was to mark what would have been the birthday of Fredy Villanueva, killed by police during an arrest on August 9, 2008, and to protest the death of Patrick Bony, who died several days after a March 30th drug raid where he was shot in the head with a rubber bullet.
